Bang!

From the local 'Southern Star' newspaper."More than 1600 homes were left without power for almost an hour when a possum caused a powerline to fall in Runcorn last week.Resident Katherine Carlson reported hearing an 'explosion' on Pine St about 10pm last Wednesday December 4th.Energex spokesman Danny Donald said the fault was caused by a possum coming into contact with the high voltage lines at 9.47pm.He said the explosion caused a wire to fall, affecting supply to 1623 customers, with 90 percent of the power restored at 11.30pm."There is no mention of what was left, if anything, of the possum.

Hot!

The summer holidays have arrived for Will! He goes back around the 20th January.We have decided to hang around here for awhile rather than head up to Frogknot. There are  a few things to sort and of course, we await with anticipation as our Telly is expected any day.Julie, from Blue Care, arrived just after 9."Have you seen any snakes yet?" she asked. I told her I hadn't but that I found a snake skin and that everyone I meet has a snake story to tell me.I asked about the King Brown that had been hanging around her house. She said it had come back and her Dad had hit it with a spade but it had escaped down a rat hole.It's going to be even more angry now! Yikes!It turned out to be the  most humid day yet, overcast but close. We met Ros at Ikea and then got some things for Dulcie. I could hardly move in the heat but that was probably also due to very little sleep the night before...also due to the heat.The rain arrived about 6 ish. There was a little thunder and lightning but no mega storm. Hopefully it will cool things down.

'Buck Rodgers'

Dulcie and I were chatting at the table today after cleaning out a cupboard.Her next door neighbour is fighting leukaemia at the moment and happily is responding well to his new treatment but because of the struggle he and his family have been through she was saying how lucky she was but that you can never make any real plans.I agreed and said "Yes, you never know what is round the corner."...which prompted her to tell me this story;She said that when she was younger her brother or one of her husbands brothers was struggling to look after his son as his wife was ill. Dulcie said that she loved children and rode on her horse, (there were very few cars in those days) to their house and said she would take the lad and look after him for them.She said he was a lovely lad and loved riding with her and she called him 'Buck', Buck Rodgers.She said he was a happy lad but one day she said he was very restless and would not settle and she knew something was wrong. She wondered about calling for the doctor but was persuaded to wait overnight. She said she slept with him all night but in the morning he was no better. Her husband's (she called him 'Pop') Father, ( Pop's pop) had one of the few cars in the area and they got him to come and they headed off to the hospital. She was holding Buck on her lap in the front seat."Two miles from the hospital," she said, "he died in my arms." She said "I knew he had gone. They said it was the 'black meningitis"When they finally got to the hospital she said she couldn't move, she was just paralysed and stayed in the car while Pop's pop carried Buck in.She was told that they would not have been able to do anything if they had got him there sooner but I could tell she regretted waiting that night.(I could have cried, as I could just cry now, writing about it.)"It grows you up," she said. "That, grows you up."

England v Australia

I have no need of an alarm clock. This morning I was woken by a washing machine at 7.15am. It is much more effective as it is in the next door room and you can’t just reach out to make it snooze!I had two lots of washing to do myself which I was able to do after breakfast.At 10.10 the cricket was on; England versus Australia in the second Ashes test from Adelaide. Dulcie and Shirley were confident that it wouldn’t take long for the Aussies to get the four wickets they needed. It didn’t....less than an hour. It was long enough for me but I did feel slightly interested. The next test, in Perth at the Waca ,(?) starts on Friday the 13^th! By all accounts it is going to be interesting. The pitch there is very bouncy which will suit Mitchell Johnson and his moustache and then there is the influence of the Freemantle Doctor. Thank goodness I did not ask who he was...but just nodded sagely...as ‘he’ turned out to be a wind.When England had lost again, Shirley wrapped the presents that Dulcie had bought for some of her neighbours children. I am glad she was here I would not have been able to do as good a job as she did.After lunch came the inevitable game of cards. England versus Australia...and England was out numbered 2 to 1.England was first to bat and kept on knocking Australia out of the field and, in pleasing retribution, in less than an hour the game was complete with England unexpectedly , astonishingly but enjoyably victorious!(There was a rematch which England lost...but we’ll just brush over that.)

Into The Lion's Den!

I slept like a log last night after all the work we did yesterday. We were still up early but had an easy morning. We 'skyped' Josh and Helena before our lovely neighbours came over. Jarrah (6) and Nate  (2) came over first. Jarrah was ringing the bell and calling a loud "Cooee!' It is a standard warning since we might be standing out at the back of the house under the shower! Then Kyle (10) arrived on his motorbike before Mum and Dad, Dave and Jen arrived. They brought a bag of peaches and apricots that they had just harvested from their fruit trees and a large home grown/home made salami!We had tea and apricots and a good chat while Will got the bottles ready to bottle the beer he has been brewing for three weeks. It should not normally take that long to be ready but it was made from a 6 year old starter kit. The first lot of yeast he used did not work so he got new yeast and since then it has been glugging away merrily. He has named it 'Zombeer' because it has never really stopped fermenting.After the neighbours left we bottled the beer and then packed and tidied up and headed home back the way we came along the Mount Lindesay Highway. It really is a lovely drive and if you ever come out to see us it will probably be the way we take you to Frogknot.Back in Brisbane, Shirl was up staying with her Mum. The cricket was on and England were losing again.After tea Will suggested a game of Euchre!....not just the usual game I am used to...no, the game you play with a partner! Talk about being intimidated...these guys have played this all their lives. Will learned to play sat on some old welshman's knee when he was 4! Just watching them shuffle made me break out into a nervous sweat!For the first game I was Dulcie's partner. Eek!Shirl and Will soon took the lead. We still had no points after about five hands. Dulcie tapped our score cards which showed zero and said "Come on Nick!" I felt it was all my fault! It probably was!Luckily I got us a point the next hand but Will and Shirl won the game.For the next game we changed partners and this time I was Will's partner. The pressure was off...phew! I am not as bothered about messing up the game for him! As it turned out though...we won!Will is off to work tomorrow. I will be home alone with Shirl and her Mum. Once the second test finally goes to Australia in the morning I feel more card games will be mooted. I might just go and practise my shuffling!